One Little Dip
by aaliona
Summary: Hermione hates to do stupid and embarrassing things, but with her pride on the line, she'll have to suck up her ego and try something new.


**I wrote this for round five of The Word Limit Competition by Taragh McCarthy with a limit of 2,500. It was beta'd by Lady Phoenix Fire Rose. Hope you enjoy it!**

"You, Hermione Granger, are a prude," Ron announced.

Choosing not to respond, Hermione turned around and picked her book back up.

Ginny sighed, flopping down on the bed behind her brunette friend, leaving no room for Hermione to turn away again. "It could be fun, you know." She glanced over at her brother and dropped her voice to a whisper. "I know Harry and I will be having _fun_."

Her voice was not low enough, because Harry turned bright red as Ron glared. "You will be doing nothing of the sort tonight tomorrow," he promised.

"And neither will I," Hermione said as she stood up. "If you don't mind, I'm going to find a quieter place to read."

Harry stepped in her way as she tried to walk through the door. "Just think about it, please. It will be odd to have only four people going."

She snorted. "Because I definitely want to feel like a third wheel to two couples."

"You won't," Ginny promised. "None of us want you to feel awkward."

"So you're inviting me to go skinny dipping?" Hermione crossed her arms and nudged Harry out of her way. "You just said you and Harry plan on sneaking away as soon as you can. I doubt Ron and Luna will do any different." She left, ignoring the shouts of protest that trailed after her.

Deciding that the house was not a safe place to stay if she wanted to get away from the pleas, Hermione snuck out back to the garden and safely made it out to the field where she could read in peace. Once she was out there, however, she couldn't stop think about her friend's proposition. Eventually she began to talk aloud to herself in hopes of removing any guilt.

"It's not like they need me," she told herself. "They will be perfectly fine going by themselves, so I shouldn't let them guilt me into it. If I do go, it will only become awkward. I mean, Ron and I used to date, so it may not be good for us to be naked together, especially around Luna, even if she is the understanding type. I'll be tossed out anyway once they've all gotten couple-y for the night. I may just be a bookworm, but I have feelings too, and for some reason, I don't want to spend a night naked with absolutely no one around to care."

"Is that so?" a voice asked, causing Hermione to jump to her feet.

She turned around quickly in a circle, trying to detect where the voice was coming from. Her wand was already in her hand, as war habits die hard. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"So demanding," the voice sighed, "and I thought you knew me better than this, 'Mione."

She narrowed her eyes, wand staying raised. "Don't call me that, George."

He stepped out where she could see him. "Oh, 'Mione, shouldn't you know me from my brother. I'm obviously Fred."

"You really can't pull that bologna anymore," she said, lowering her wand so she could cross her arms. "Fred has two ears; you only have one."

He shrugged. "It occasionally works on Ron, although he certainly isn't the fastest broom in the shop."

"You don't sell brooms," she pointed out.

"Your point?" he countered, raising an eyebrow as if daring her to contradict his analogy.

Hermione shook her head, knowing that if she continued this argument he would beat her with fool's logic. "What did you want again?" she asked.

George grinned. "Well, I just happened to hear you talking to yourself." Hermione's face tinged pink, but he ignored it for the moment. "What's this about my younger siblings – who I only have the most sincere intentions for – going skinny dipping?"

"None of your business," she replied, turning away from him.

George hopped around so he was again standing in her way. "Not so fast. You can't drop a bomb like that and leave. As is, I may just have to tell Mum about it."

She re-crossed her arms. "Fine," she said. "Just as long as you overheard them and did not hear it from me."

He frowned. "You are absolutely no fun, Hermione Granger."

"You sound just like Ron."

George gasped. "Take that back!" he commanded. "I am nothing like my younger brother."

"'Hermione, you're a prude. Live a little,'" she mimicked. "'You are no fun.' Now which was which?"

"One comment does not make me a git!"

She laughed. "No, your many other comments prove you're a git. Did you have a point?" Hermione batted her eyes, enjoying the fact that she could throw his own comments back in his face and impressed with herself that she could hold her own and fluster a Weasley twin. It was quite fun.

"Give me one reason I'm like my brother."

"You secretly want to go with them really, really badly."

He smirked at her before asking, "What possibly gave you that impression?"

Hermione returned his look, glad at where the conversation was headed. George may have felt high and mighty cornering her about such a squeamish subject, but she now had the upper hand. When it came to facts and powers of observation, she couldn't possibly lose. "To start with," she said, "you overheard me and decided to have this conversation. If you weren't interested in going, you would have confronted the other four about it and threatened them with revealing the plan to Molly. Instead, you've started with me hoping to find out more than what I would say talking to myself."

He smiled throughout her speech, acting as if her evaluation were over the sky's color. When she finished, his only comment was, "You should really kick that habit. People might think you're crazy." She refused to answer, and after a few moments of silence, George added, "All right, I might be a tiny bit interested, but I have no plans of going alone."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Fred will come."

"That's not what I meant," he replied, "After all, the others are family, with the exception of Luna, and she belongs to family. They will all be perfectly at ease. No, I want to see someone squirm under the circumstances, someone like you."

"No." She twisted around him and took off briskly for the house. Surely the others had given up by now.

George hurried along behind her. "Come on, Hermione," he pleaded, using her name instead of his nickname in hopes it would persuade her. "You will never know if it's fun unless you try it. Just one little dip?"

"George," she threatened without turning around, "if this is some plot to see me naked –"

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "It's nothing of the sort. Come to think of it, you _would_ be naked, wouldn't you?" He ducked out of the way as she stopped and swung for his head. "Nice punch there. You nearly took off my head."

She turned around to keep going. "Sorry, I missed."

"Such a cold attitude," he chided. "You won't get anywhere in life like that."

"I won't have to go swimming naked."

"And how much fun would that be?"

Since they were at the house, Hermione didn't reply. Before she could open the door, Fred burst through and nearly ran into George. "Guess what?" he said quietly, his eyes taking on an almost Slytherin glint. "The little kiddies are planning a little skinny dipping adventure. What's to say we can't crash it?"

"Hermione and I were just discussing that. I think she should go along too, don't you?"

Fred grinned. "Of course I do."

"Well, she won't."

"Hermione!" Fred and his twin turned to face her, crossing their arms to appear almost serious. "I can't believe you would be so low down and prudish."

"Okay, _Ron_."

Fred feigned shock while his twin commented, "I thought we'd discussed this already. We aren't like Ron."

"We're much better," Fred added.

"Funnier."

"Better-looking."

"Wittier."

"More intelligent."

"I think you can stop," she said. "I'll let you shower yourselves with false compliments all day, but I draw the line when it comes to intelligence."

"Are you saying we aren't small?" Fred asked with a pout. "I take a lot of offense to that."

"And that bit about us being liars," George said. "We are not."

"We are very good-looking," Fred reassured her, sweeping his hands out to emphasize his point about their looks. "All Weasleys are, except maybe Ron and Percy."

"Or are you into his type, 'Mione?" George teased, elbowing her in the side.

"Stop it," she snapped, "and no, I'm not into Percy's type."

"Too prudish for the prude," Fred said in a wise air, which landed him an elbow to the side as well.

"I am not a prude," Hermione insisted.

"Oh yeah?" George said with a grin. "Prove it."

"Fine!" she snapped. Her face instantly filled with horror as she realized what she had just agreed to.

Fred raised an eyebrow as he and his brother smirked. "Still think we aren't intelligent?"

…

Hermione was getting dizzy watching Ginny rush around the room. "Have you figured out what you're wearing?" the younger girl asked.

She almost laughed in response. "I thought the whole point of skinny dipping was not wearing any clothes."

Ginny stopped moving long enough to glare before sweeping over to her mirror to apply her lip gloss. "The point," she replied as she puckered up to her reflection, "is to wear something cute there. What does it matter if you're naked if you can't have a little strip tease first?"

Hermione could think of several points but instead asked, "Why are you putting on make-up if you're just going to get wet? I didn't think you were into that sort of thing anyway."

The red-head turned around to put her hands on her hips. "For one thing, I'm not interested in this stuff, but Harry seems to like it when my make-up runs, and I'm not going to leave it like this. I'll put a protective spell on it so it doesn't all wash off right away."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Hermione observed before picking her book back up.

"Don't do that." Ginny sighed in exasperation. "You need to start getting ready. You'll need clothes to wear over to the pond and a swim suit underneath in case Mum gets suspicious. Oh, and a few cosmetic spells wouldn't hurt."

She snapped her book shut. "And why is that?"

Ginny sighed again, taking a seat on the bed. "Everyone will have them. After all, we're going to be exposing ourselves not just to our partners but to our friends and family. Think how embarrassing a chubby stomach would be?"

"None of us are chubby," Hermione pointed out. "Sure, none of us have six packs, but no one has anything to be ashamed of."

"Even Luna will be using a cosmetic spell," Ginny said, as if that made it crazy to go without. "This is going to be the first time Ron sees her naked."

"Won't that make it awkward for his best friends and family members to see her at the same time?"

"You aren't getting the big picture."

"Apparently not."

Ginny spent almost another hour explaining to Hermione the importance of looking unrealistically good that night, but the brunette just didn't get it. Finally she left the room, promising Ginny she would use the spells and both knowing she wouldn't. Shortly after that, they all met in the kitchen.

"You all be careful swimming in the dark," Mrs. Weasley said. "If I find out that one of you gets hurt–"

"We'll be fine, Mum," Ron assured her. "We've got everything we need, even one of those muggle torches in case every single one of us forgets how to use our wands."

She swatted her youngest son on the arm before waving them out the door.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Fred started chuckling. "She doesn't suspect a thing."

Aside from his comment, they walked in silence until they reached the pond. They stood on the beach – towels and wands dropped to the ground – and just glanced at each other awkwardly for a bit. After a few long moments, Ron took a small step forward. "I guess I'll go first," he said confidently as he lifted his shirt over his head, revealing abs of steel that Hermione was certain he didn't really have.

The other boys took it has a sign and started removing their own shirts. Ginny and Luna carefully removed their own clothing, watching out of peripheral vision as their boyfriends started to drool. Hermione removed hers as well, but she didn't make a big deal about it. The way she saw it, she was only there for two reasons: so her friends could lie to themselves about doing this just to hook up and so the twins would have something to hold over her head for the rest of her life.

She was down to her bathing suit when everyone else had completely stripped, all of them –twins included – looking entirely too perfect. "Go on and get in the water without me," she said. "I'll be down in a minute."

"That's so cute," Fred chided.

His twin continued, "She's shy."

She took a moment to compose herself, and then she flipped them the bird. Both laughing, they jumped into the water with the other four behind them. Hermione knelt next to her clothes and picked up her wand.

"What are you doing, Hermione?" Ron asked. He stood up in the water as she gave the twig a small flick. Instantly his sculpted chest melted away. "Seriously?"

Hermione smiled and untied her bikini top. "If you're going to be courageous," she said, sliding down her bottoms, "do it for real."

"It was none of your business," Harry snapped as she stepped into the water.

Ginny laughed. "Oh come on, Harry. I knew you weren't that long anyway."

Hermione flipped onto her back in the cool water, paddling away as a group of gingers instantly swarmed around Harry. She had just reached the other side of the pond when she felt small waves rocking towards her. A hand wrapped around her wrist as she turned to look who it was.

"That was certainly something bold," George commented as he pulled her towards him.

Pushing her legs out, Hermione managed to touch the bottom in time to not run into him. "Did it prove I'm not a prude?"

George grinned as she pushed his hand off her arm. "I think so, but you know what would make you even less so?"

"Where's Fred?"

"He's over guarding Ginny's honor. I doubt he will come over anytime soon."

Hermione thought about it a moment before sliding up closer to the ginger boy. "Go ahead," she said. "I'm not prude."


End file.
